A glide bomb, separated from a missile at a very high altitude, falls at supersonic speed toward the target on ground. It is part of the Ground Self-Defense Force's capability of recapturing invaded or occupied remote islands.

The ministry aims to put glide bombs into practical use in fiscal 2026 by moving up its initial development schedule by about seven years, officials said.

Glide bombs are believed to use mobile launchers. Due to its long range, glide bombs, along with the Air SDF's planned antisurface long-range cruise missiles, may be considered to have an ability to strike enemy bases and raise alarm in neighboring countries.

Cody Wilson, the founder of a 3d printed gun company, is accused of child sexual assault and was on the run in Taiwan. He was arrested there and has since been deported back to the US. Cody Wilson has resigned from the 3d printing gun company.

Friday, September 28, 2018

The United States has initiated prolongation of the International Space Station’s service life till 2028-2030 and corresponding work is already in progress, Russian cosmonaut, deputy director of the Institute of Biomedical Problems under the Russian Academy of Sciences, Oleg Kotov, told TASS in an interview.

"No, they [NASA] do not wish to dump it [the ISS] and they have never wished to do that. They have already initiated prolongation of the station’s operation till 2028-2030 and this work is already in progress. There are two tasks on the agenda - to persuade the government to provide funds for financing the operation of the ISS and to carry out technical scrutiny into whether it is safe to prolong the station’s life cycle," Kotov said.

It is hard to believe the above when NASA will have such tremendous budget pressures in the 2020s with the lunar gateway, lunar landings and building the mars ship.

Then again, it looks like Congress, both the House and Senate, want to extend the ISS.

Speaking of the Gateway Station, Russia also stated they may abandon the project because NASA is not treating them as a peer rather than a secondary partner. Given Russia's lack of recent experience past LEO for any mission and no experience for human spaceflight, Russia's inability to finish its portion of the ISS, and the current geopolitical climate, I'm surprised Russia thinks it will participate at all: NASA hasn't listed the Russians as participating in the station construction at least as of the last update.

Russia is claiming they may build their own gateway station, but...yeah. Just like they will build their own LEO station in 2020. um. yeah. we'll see.

Now they are backtracking their claim they will not participate in the Gateway Station. It sounds like they don't want this to be an American project with international participation as junior partners, but rather to have it be an international project with American participation.

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Russia recently concluded the 2018 edition of the massive Vostok exercise series that included Chinese forces for the first time. At Moscow’s invitation, Beijing sent People’s Liberation Army soldiers, helicopters, tanks – and one uninvited Chinese surveillance ship.

A PLA Navy Dongdiao-class auxiliary general intelligence (AGI) shadowed Russian Navy assets for the length of the at-sea portion of the exercise while Chinese and Mongolian troops exercised ashore, a U.S. official confirmed to USNI News.

The PLA sent about 3,500 troops for the ground portion, but it was unclear if the PLA Navy was invited to send warships to drill with the Russians.

Details from Russia on the exercise have been inconsistent, but Russian state-supported media claimed it was the largest exercise in modern Russian history.

Friday, September 21, 2018

In the mission of HTV7 (“KOUNOTORI 7”), after completing the re-supply mission to ISS, HTV7 will demonstrate the novel technology for recovering experiment samples from ISS, which Japan has not obtained up until now, by taking advantage of the opportunity of re-entry into Earth with the HTV Small Re-entry Capsule (HSRC) that will be loaded on the HTV for the first time ever.

Sunday, September 16, 2018

The Marine Corps is considering introducing a large transport ship capable of carrying warplanes, and mobilizing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to enhance its amphibious operations and surveillance capabilities, its chief said Wednesday.

During his keynote speech at a security seminar, Lt. Gen. Jun Jin-goo also expressed his desire to capitalize on robotics and other cutting-edge technologies to enhance the marines' maritime power projection capabilities.

"We are considering building the LPX (large platform experimental)-type ship capable of carrying aircraft in close cooperation with the Navy," Jun said.

He did not specify what aircraft will be carried by the envisioned ship. But observers say that the commander might have in mind the F-35B, a short takeoff and vertical landing variant of the U.S.-made radar-evading fighter.

The Marine Corps appears to want to secure its own LPX ship apart from the 14,000-ton Dokdo amphibious landing ship and the Marado warship, which are currently in operation and under construction, respectively.

Saturday, September 15, 2018

Fifth Generation Targets:
Sierra Nevada is making progress on their 5th gen target for the USAF. The drone is 40 ft long, 24 ft wing span, has an endurance of 1 1/2 hours, can reach 40k ft, weighs 9,600 lbs, and can takeoff and land from a runway.

China has displayed potential targets at its expos.Sixth Generation Fighters:

The WS-15 engine might finally be fixed. This would correct a real problem the J-20 has had (being underpowered).

Japanese Next Gen Fighter:

Will the Northrop YF-23 be the basis for their design for Japan's next gen fighter?

Lockheed is pitching a hybrid of the F-22 and F-35 to the USAF. It would use the F-35's avionics and new stealth coatings while keeping the F-22's bauplan. The cost per plane if 140 are ordered is $190M. Some are stating the 6th gen fighter might take decades as the reason Lockheed is pitching the FrankenRaptor or F-22C. This is the same aircraft it is offering to Japan. The weird thing is how that is even remotely possible: the F-22 was banned from export by law. However, the Secretary of the Air Force just shot the whole thing down. The USAF is not buying the F-22C or the F-15X.

PAK-DA:

Tupolev claims the first flight of the PAK-DA will be mid 2020; however, they have stated the modernization program for the Tu-160 White Swan has eaten up too many resources and that is the reason for the delay of the PAK-DA. The PAK-DA may never get made, but not because of money problems. Rather it is because of a lack of specially trained personnel working for Tupolev.

Supposedly, the Russian equivalent of a PDR was completed for the PAK-DA.

USMC has deployed F-35Bs off the coast of Africa for training for the first time. The USMC has redeployed F-35Bs on the USS Essex to the Middle East. The USMC is ready to use the F-35Bs in combat if necessary.

Friday, September 14, 2018

NASA says astronauts will haul two pieces of a small space station to lunar orbit in 2024, during the second crewed flight of the Orion spacecraft.

Plans for the station, which is now referred to as the Gateway, have been shaping up since 2017. The Gateway, Space Launch System rocket and Orion crew capsule represent the core of NASA's plans to send humans back to the Moon and on to Mars. The Gateway is designed to host astronauts for short-term stays, serve as a waypoint for crewed surface missions and receive samples robotically collected from both the Moon and Mars.

The first piece of the Gateway is a power and propulsion module, scheduled to launch on a commercial rocket in 2022. The first crewed Orion mission, a lap around the Moon that will not stop in orbit, is scheduled a year later, in 2023. Then, in 2024, another Orion crew will fly to lunar orbit and visit the power and propulsion module, with two more pieces of the Gateway in tow.

"NASA plans to deliver two modules on the third integrated flight of the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft, targeted for 2024," said Kathyrn Hambleton, a NASA public affairs officer, in an email.

NASA dropped the RFP for the gateway station 's power and propulsion module already, too.

NASA updated the assembly schedule for the Gateway: note! Nowhere does it say anything about Russian participation. The acquisition strategy decision for the airlock Russia was claiming it would build has been delayed until 2020. I have expect it to be delayed another year, tbh.

The US MDA just gave Boeing, General Atomics and Lockheed contracts to improve their lasers intended for mounting on a UAV for missile defense. The MDA is reportedly aiming for a 500 kw laser by 2021 and a 1 MW laser by 2023.

The US Navy award to Boeing of the MQ-25A is the largest defense contract win for Boeing in more than a decade and may lead to over 150 Stingrays.

US Special Operations Command gave General Atomics an integration contract for MALET.

Some interesting pix were found in Google Earth of Chinese UAVs by an Indian source. I disagree with their assessment of what they are seeing, but not the images themselves.

The US Army is talking about 'Fully Autonomous Maneuver' (aka killer robots) as a legitimate concept for the future. The near future goal though being developed by the Army Research Lab is the 'mobile intelligent entities.'

Sunday, September 09, 2018

The Russian Navy has commenced research on engine designs for Russia’s planned nuclear-powered supercarrier, dubbed Project 23000E Shtorm (Storm), the chief of the Russian Navy’s shipbuilding department, Rear Admiral Vladimir Tryapichnikov, said in a television interview on August 24.

“Today, an engine has been launched [the research work on its creation has been launched] and today we are working precisely on this issue,” Tryapichnikov said on Zvezda TV Channel last Friday. “Some concept will be approved in the near future. Of course, this is expensive but such a ship should be built.”

The principal design work for the new carrier is being undertaken by the St. Petersburg-based Nevskoye Planning and Design bureau, Russia’s primary designer of large surface warships. Tryapichnikov’s comments once more raise the question whether a Russian nuclear-powered aircraft carrier project will ever move beyond the design stage and whether the Russian Navy has a need for a flattop.

Uber lost $900M last quarter and is being urged by its investors to dump the self driving division. Toyota just invested $500M into Uber's self driving division. Uber is not going to dump its self driving car divison.

Senator Flake is attempting to get funding for 'beerbots' banned from the Pentagon budget.

Developers at the University of Tokyo and Keio Unversity have developed a robot you strap to your back and someone else operates remotely. That way you have another set of hands and eyes. Telling your boss to get off your back has a whole new meaning.

Queensland University has developed RangerBot, a UUV intended to monitor and protect the Great Barrier Reef, especially from starfish.

Using robots to help those who are housebound to interact with other people.